Improvement in blasting by electricity



UNITED STATES PATENT VOEEICE.

fr. P. SHAFFNEE, 0F LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY.

IMPROVEMENT IN BLASTING VBY ELECTRICITY.

Specification forming; part of Letters Patent No. 51,67 l, daic December i9, i855.

To all whom it 'may concern' Be it known that I, TALIAEEREO P. SHAPE NER, of Louisville, in thc county of Jetierson and State of Kentucky, have made new and useful Improven'ients in means for Exploding Combustible Materials, which I term a Divisional Electric-Circuit Exploder f and l do hereby declare the following; to be a lul'l, clear, and exact description of the nature, construction-,and operation ot' the same, sutiicient to enable one skilled in the art to which my invention appertains-to constructand use the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, which are made part ot' this specification, and in which- Figure l shows a view of the invention when applied to explode acharge ot'eombustible material by the application of lire at several points. Fig. 2 shows a view of the former or known method of connecting two or more fuses in a singlecircuit, the fuses being placed consecutively7 uponthe wire.

The invention consists in connecting the main wires by lesser branch wires to the fuses, which contain an explosive composition ofless conductivity as to quantity electricity, so that the volume .of electricity generated by the battery and transmitted through the main wires will be more than can be conducted by the brauch wires and the composition of lhei'uses as a whole.

The objects are, iirst, to insure certainty ot ignition ot' the explosive compound, supposing that it will not be possible i'or all the fuses to fail to ignite, as the non-combustion ot one will not interfere with the ignition of the others.

Secondly, the great end atta-ined by this arrangement, especially in artillery practice, will be the instantaneous explosion of any required quantity of gunpowder or other couibustible materials, by the simultaneous ignition of the vsame at any required number of points-an object hitherto unattained.

In Fig. 1, 1 and-N are thc main wires, the former being positive, andthe latter negative. These wires are passed into the torpedol T, or any other vessel or chamber which may contain the charge to be exploded.

To the wires 1l N are respectively attached the smaller 4branch wires A and B, which pass into the fuses 11, and their points are connected in the fuse by au inferior conductor compound susceptible of explosion by the presence of electricity, the terminals in cach fuse not being in contact. This compound may consist of oxide of copper, soot, sulphide of copper, plum- In Fig'. 2, P N are the positive and nega' tive wires leading` into the torpedo 'l or other charged chamber, and upon the wires are the fuses F, being` eonseeutivel y attached thereto.

lt will be seen that the failure ot' one to ignite or to continue the current to the next in series is fatal to the whole; and, further, the first-in series will explode before the others, there beingl an interval ot' time between the actual explosion of each. tric force which' can be passed on this circuit is limited by the fuse ot' greatest resistance. My invention avoids both these ditiicultics, for in the tirst place tie safety ot' the whole series does not depend upon the perl'ections ofthearrangement in each fuse; and, secondly,

the force of the charge which can pass through any one is not limited by the fuse of greatest resistance. 4

'In the device Fig. 2, if any one ofthe fuses is worthless, all the others are useless; and whatever may be the average character, they are all brought down to the standard of the least etlicient one ot' the series; and in all cases the number ot' fuses that may be possiblc to be ignited under the most favorable circumstances heretofore has not exceeded twenty, that probably heilig four times the average number on a circuitof one mile inv length. By the arrangement in Fig. 1 the number is not limited by any of the considerations or casualties attendanton theplanFie'. 2; but I have exploded three hundred without attaining a maximum.

The branch wires have been described as with a single charge ot' explosive material for the purpose of simultaneous ignition of the sume at several points, as set forth.

TAL. P. SHAFFNER. Witnesses:

ALExn. A. C. KLAUcKF., .EDWARD H. KNIGHT..

The maximum elec- 

